The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 643, 12 June 1852, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

Be just and fear not : Let all ti\e ends thou aim'kt at, be thy Country's, 'Iliy God's, and '1 ruth's..

We have been in no haste to offer any dotailed observations on the arrangements for bringing into operation the Provincial Conncils Ordinance, as developed in the Proclamation by the Governor-in-Chief which wo lately transferred from the Government Gazette to our columus. Our reason simply was, that the plan seemed to us so obviou&ly equitable and judicious that it would almost be a work or supererogation to enlarge upon it, unless objections were raised in some quarter against it. This, however, we scarcely looked for : — we expected that it would commend itself to general approbation ; and we can now refer to the subject with the gratifying knowledge that it has done so. There has not been, so far as our information reaches, a solitary objection taken to any one of the arrangements for carrying out the Ordinance, even by those who found most iault with the Ordinance itself at the time of its enactment. It affords us unaffected pleasure to find that our contemporary, the Southern Cross, is distinct and even warm in expressing approbation of the Proclamation ; v and, not only so, but is now willing to assert for the Ordinance merits which, at one time we were not suffered to claim for it without encountering opposition and contradiction. Our contemporary records his "full and unreserved declaration" that "no reasonable objection can be urged against the machinery by which it is about to be set in motion ;" — that :( the number and distribution of members to represent the several districts appear to be fairly adjusted;" — and that " the other important point, the districts to be represented, seems -to be equally unobjectionable." In all this we fully concur. The number of the Council (being double that to which it might •have been restricted had the intention been to limit the range of popular representation), — the classification of the electoral districts, particularly the grouping of the suburbs and the Pensioner Settlements respectively into distinct districts each of which is to return its own member,— the apportionment of the number of members to the City and tlao other parts of tho Province on a scale in which the several recognised grounds of elective privilege have evidently been carefully regarded,—and the minor machinery by which the business parts of the Ordinance are to be worked, — constitute a plan which, taken as a whole, deserves tho commendation that our contemporary has pronounced upon it, 1 and reflects credit upon the ability and impartiality with which it was framed. As^ respects the Ordinance itself, the Southern Cross now declares views in substantial accordance with those which many months since we folt it our duty to advocate. Our contemporary still considers it " defective as a measure of local self-go- [ vcrnmont," and " but the means to a better end;" but he, notwithstanding, frankly declares, "Its working, if not susceptible of much immediate good, may still be made conducive to much future advantage," and the powers of the Provincial Council, though " sadly limited," are " not altogether inoperative, and, if ably worked, may be made materially subservient to the general weal." And, having alluded to " a complication of disorders" under which he regards the Province as labouring, he adds, "If wisely and worthily organized, the Provincial Council may prove the good physician to medicine these disorders, — to infuse new life, and to impart new action to our exhausted veins. The obstructions that have so long and so ruinously impeded our path, may be smoothed or hewn down. The course for industry and energy may be cleared; and New Zealand may ere long become the fruitful and prosperous country which a bountiful Providence designed her to be." Passing by any incidental allusions which may be implied in these comments, and on which some difference of opinion might possibly exist, they really express in substance all we have ever alleged in favour of the Provincial Councils Ordinance. We never said or thought that it was a perfect measure : — our favourite mode of describing it was as an instalment of Free Institutions, — a measure from which an amount of present good might certainly be extracted, and which might be made a preparation for, and an instrument to attain, further and fuller political privileges. Between the New Zealander's earliest and the Southern Cross's latest expressed views on the Ordinance, there seems to be no essential— scarcely any material — difference. As it is always more gratifying to us to agree with our contemporary than to controvert his sentiments, we have pleasure in stating t!ie coincidence of our views with his on one or two additional points advanced in his article of Tuesday. We too "' rejoice to perceive the interests of the Pensioners duly cared for," and we too think that the election of a civilian as their representative will be most conducive to their independence and general advantage. In approaching their representative it is desirable that they should not be fettered by the requirements of military etiquette, which, lo say the least, may prove inconvenient in. that frequent intercourse which it might be necessary to maintain with him respecting their civil affairs. As they are not confined in their choice on this occasion (as they were in the Municipal Election) to the residents of their own localities, but can freely select from the whole Province, they can meet little difficulty, we should hope, in finding a representative whose qualifications may be honourable to their discrimination and promotive of their wellbeing and well-doing in the land of their adoption Again, as respects the important question of the exercise of the electoral privileges of tho Natives, we do not hesitate to say with our contemporary that "it is our decided conviction that Natives should not be registered, unless a demand on their own part shall be voluntarily preferred." There are indeed subjects of legislation in which they have a special and immediate concern. — such, for example, as enactments affecting the education of their race :

and not only upon these, but upon all questions bearing uppn their interests in common with those of the Queen's other subjects, we would to the utmost maintain their right to give an opinion, so far as they are able properly to form one. But rapid as their advance in Christian civilization has happily been, it is undoubted that the number who yet understand their own position and interests sufficiently to give an enlightened vote with reference to them, is comparatively small ; and while we would gjtve every facility for the registration of a Maori-elector who appreciates the privilege sufficiently to apply for it voluntarily, we would deprecate any attempt to bring them up to the poll as the unreasoning tools for working out the purposes of any party or any class whatever. Such we take to be the view with which the Ordinance was framed, and such we hope will be the practical operation of the law which, righteously although boldly, extends the franchise to tho Native population. Whatever may be the capabilities for good on the one hand, or the defects on the other, connected with the Ordinance, its results must of course depend upon the fitness or uufi tness of the members of the Council for the important charge which will be entrusted to them. Clearly, the electors should not choose their representatives on private or personal grounds, but with a determination to ..fix on the most eligible men,- irrespective of all minor considerations^ It urgently them to seek out those who are best acquainted with the affairsbf the Province, — (a qualification . which long residence in it does not necessarily confer, for many plod on year after year industriously and prosperously in their own particular departments, without ever casting one comprehensive glance beyond the boundaries or their own immediate associations), — those who have not so committed themselves to merely party predilections and animosities as to have acquired the habit of looking with a jaundiced eye upon every measure in any way identified -ftith particnlar men, — those who have given such proof as successive circumstances admitted, of the identification of their principles and feelings with the general interests df ,the community; — those whose honesty of purpose cannot be impeached j — and those whose abilities would qualify them to assert, explain, and defend the various interests of their constituents. It would be a libel on the characterof the Province to say that it cannot supplysuch men ; and, if the electors do not endeavour to bring them forward and return them to the Council, the fault will be their own, and they will themselves suffer the penalty of that fault, — for there is in the very essence of representative institutions an element of retributive justice which requites in land the failure of duty on the part of constituencies by inflicting upon themselves the injuiies consequent upon the unworthiuess or inefficiency of the objects of their choice. That there may be a full and fair representation of the Province, we say, (ao'ain in the words of the Southern Cross), " Colonists of New Ulster ! as you regard your adopted country's advancement, — Jis£:i«ster, Register, Register 1" Our contemporary expresses a desire "to witness, at least at the outset, a truce between all political adversaries, so that both parties mio-ht speed the work of enrolment." \v-e should <*o farther than this. Why should fellow-co .onists be adverse^ ies at all in a movement in which their mutual interests are so largely involved 1 ! Why not proclaim, not merely an " armistice," but a per maw nt peace so far as early feuds are concerned, and — not only at the Registry, but -at the polling-place — unite in the single purpose of promoting the welfare of the Province, knowing no other strife than a rivalry in the race of patriotic effort for the commonwea 1 % In the foregoing observations we have taken for granted tha^ w he Ordinance will come into full operation, and that the Council to bo elected will actually exercise legislative functions. At the same time it is to be remembered that the Constitution for New Zealand promised in the Queen's Speech may materially alter the state of this matter. It is by no means impossible that before the date at which it will be practicable to convene the proposed Council for the transaction of business, we may hear from England of an Imperial Act, modifying, if not wholly setting aside, the provisions of the Colonial Ordinance. This contingency, however, would be no sufficient reason for apathy in the performance of present duty.; and we trust that no consideration of the kind will prevent an active and zealous attention to the registration which is appointed for next month.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1852.